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Geggy Geggy is offline
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Old Nov 6th, 2006, 08:00 AM        Democratic change on the internet
Sounds like somebody's complaining there is too much freedom in the world wide web.

Web inventor fears for the future

By Pallab GhoshScience correspondent, BBC News

The British developer of the world wide web says he is worried about the way it could be used to spread misinformation and "undemocratic forces".

The web has transformed the way many people work, play and do business.

But Sir Tim Berners-Lee told BBC News he feared that, if the way the internet is used is left to develop unchecked, "bad things" could happen.

He wants to set up a web science research project to study the social implications of the web's development.

If we don't have the ability to understand the web as it's now emerging, we will end up with things that are very bad

The changes experienced to date because of the web are just the start of a more radical transformation of society, he said.

But Sir Tim is concerned about the way it could end up being used.

He told the BBC: "If we don't have the ability to understand the web as it's now emerging, we will end up with things that are very bad.

"Certain undemocratic things could emerge and misinformation will start spreading over the web.

"Studying these forces and the way they're affected by the underlying technology is one of the things that we think is really important," he said.

Social phenomenon

He insisted his new web science research initiative would be more than just computer science.

He said he wanted to attract researchers from a range of disciplines to study it as a social as well as technological phenomenon.

Sir Tim added that he hoped it would create a new science for studying the web, which he believes would lead to newer and more exciting systems.

"All kinds of disciplines are going to have to converge. People with all kinds of skills are going to have to work together to build a new web which is going to be even better," he said.

He also said employers were now beginning to complain that there were not enough people who fully understood the web.

"There aren't any courses at the moment and it hasn't really been brought together.

"We're hearing complaints from companies when they need people that really understand the medium from both the technological and social side.

"When you look at university courses, web science isn't there - it seems to fall through the cracks.

"So we'd like to put it on the curriculum so that there are a lot more people who understand this."

Social challenges

The US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Southampton, UK, will launch the long-term research collaboration that will have a direct influence on the future development of the world wide web.

Because the internet is such a free medium people tend to have a horror of controlling the information flows

The Web Science Research Initiative will chart out a research agenda aimed at understanding the scientific, technical and social challenges underlying the growth of the web.

Of particular interest is the growing volume of information on the web that documents more and more aspects of human activity and knowledge.

The project will examine how we access this information and assess its reliability.
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Grislygus Grislygus is offline
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Old Nov 6th, 2006, 09:51 AM       
So a British researcher's decided to study the social affects of the internet. Big deal. Just lemme know when the U.N. tries to take control of the internet again.
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Old Nov 6th, 2006, 02:16 PM       
how do you interpet that as "Sounds like somebody's complaining there is too much freedom in the world wide web. "?

I just don't get that at all.
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Old Nov 6th, 2006, 03:17 PM       
I don't get "Sounds like somebody's complaining there is too much freedom in the world wide web " and I don't get what kind of bad things are going to because of the internet.
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 05:26 PM       
Timothy Leary wrote a book before he died about how the internet would become the new acid, which is pretty much what this article is about.

you guys probably don't know much about Timothy Leary since he is painted as a drug fiend, but some of his studies basically centered around how LSD, and other drugs, could be used to make profound psychological changes by a sort of resocializing effect (so crazy people could become uncrazy, gay people could become ungay if they wanted, bad habits could be undone, neurosis unwound etc.). Even Freud experimented with drugs to make psychological changes, he was into Cocaine. Then of course there's modern psychiatry which prescribes drugs for everything, but that's irrelevant. He also addressed bringing subjectivity back into Psychology.
Anyway this is saying pretty much the same thing as timothy leary would say, that the internet, like acid, must be used in a controlled setting if it's going to have any type of "Good" effect. Otherwise, it's out of control and misinforming, which can have a neurotic effect. You don't know how many idiots there are online "Seeking the truth" like all the 911 conspiracy assholes out there. How many of them find stupid information to cling to? Same with illuminati freaks and whatever other type of people. Of course, this isn't mch different from reality where people act ridiculous, but there's obviously some differences.
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 06:01 PM       
Quote:
If we don't have the ability to understand the web as it's now emerging, we will end up with things that are very bad
this made me lol, but all you ahve to do is read the weekend web to know that this dude is ultimately correct ;<
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